DIY Pedicure for busy Moms

If you are a busy mom or just a busy gal in general and have a limited budget this diy pedicure is perfect for you! Being a military family with 6 kids (and of course the whole 60% of the paycheck going to the ex thing) makes for an extremely tight budget. But even if you have no moolah it doesn't mean you can't look nice. We all need to pamper ourselves sometimes, so I've come up with this cheap little pedicure routine I do occasionally. Disclaimer: My feet look awful, I've neglected them for so long. If your scared of feet you may not want to read on haha.

First remove any old nail polish and clip toes to desired length. Remember to clip straight across, not at an angle to avoid ingrown toenails.

Ewww my feet are seriously in need of a makeover!

Next, fill a basin (ok I used a mop bucket don't judge meh!) with warm water to hot water. Add 1 cup of Epsom salt and 1 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar and mix. Soak your feet for 10-15 minutes and then dry off.

In the first picture you will see a handy little tool that you use to push your cuticles back and trim away any excess skin around the nail. This will help in preventing hangnails. Most dollar stores will carry a tool like this or walmart has them really cheap as well. At this point you can also use a pumice stone or Ped Egg if you have bad callouses. I don't have either of those tools so I skipped that part.

Looking better!

 

Next find a happy color to paint your nails. If you are artistic go for a neat design and multiple colors. I am not when it comes to painting so I stuck with a hot pink from Claires. (By the way Claires always has great deals on nail polish like buy 1 get 1 free. Of course the dollar store has polish too for a dollar but colors are very limited)

 Looks a little red here but trust me they were BRIGHT pink.

 

 

After your polish has dried slather on some lotion. I love this Dr. Scholls for Her stuff. Its so creamy and soft. It also doesn't have much of a smell either which I like because I'm sensitive to smells. Walmart and even grocery stores carry Dr. Scholls for Her. It's a little more than I'd like to pay but it lasts forever so it pretty much equals out.

Finally don't forget to put on some comfy socks. This will keep the moisture in and also make sure things like dog hair and dirt don't stick to your feet. I know they make some socks with aloe in them. They are amazing and I wish I had a pair. But I do have adorable monkey socks!

Marine Corps Mess Night-Blue lace bandage dress

It's been a while since I've blogged! We have been going through a lot (more on that later) and I've had a ton of stuff to catch up on.

This past weekend we went to whats called "Mess Night" or "Dining In". It's a tradition in the Marine Corps thats basically a summer ball but different and more formal. It is a dinner for Officers and Staff NCO's. (Non commissioned officers for those of you that don't know Marine lingo) There is a period during dinner where the floor is opened for "fines". Someone asks the President of the mess to fine so and so for doing such and such. They actually get fined but its more comical than real. For example this one Marine was fined $5 and made to carry a water pistol around the whole evening because he didn't do something correctly on the firing range last week. After dinner and fines, there are a bunch of toasts to Marines, Navy Corpsmen, Vietnam veterans ect. ect. It was an interesting evening for sure, comical but it was a bit tedious towards the end. Hubby and I were just glad to get back to our hotel room and crash.

Aww look at us!

 

There is nothing like the feeling of pride you get when you walk beside your Marine in his dress uniform. Definitely the sharpest uniform in the military (but then I'm a little biased haha) Ok so maybe I'm a little concieted but I think every Marine wife can identify with how you just love, love the way your Marine turns heads walking along in his uniform so handsome, proud and dignified. And I'm just like yep, look all you want ladies and gents thats MY man!

 

And here is my outfit for the night.

(Don't mind the pole sticking out of my head, my husband is not a good photographer)

 A better look at the dress.

 My silver heels
 

I wore a Blue Lace Bandage dress-Charlotte Russe

Silver heels-Got at a shop back in SC. Not sure of the brand

Blue nails-Claires nail polish

French Manicured toenails-done myself with a Sally Hanson kit

Silver and diamond necklace-Claires clearance rack

Diamond bracelet-(yes its fake lol) Ebay via China somewhere

Hair-I forgot my curling iron and with the heat my hair would NOT stay straight despite a flat iron. So yes its a bit messy but now you get to see how thick, wavy and untamable it is haha!

 

Saturday we went over to my parents house to pick up the girls and spend some time with my family. It was a really nice visit. Sunday we pretty much did nothing and just caught up on sleep and recharged from a week of stress and crazyness.

Kid's Handprint Keepsake Project

A few times a month I hold a craft club at my house. Moms and thier kids come over and do a themed craft and have playtime and snack. I have really enjoyed it, and had the opportunity to meet some awesome people. The girls get so excited when I tell them its craft day, its almost like a party for them. Today we had a Mother's Day theme.

We painted pots and each child got to take a packet of seeds home as well. (Makes a great gift for a mom or grandma)

We also did a fun keepsake project. I had the girls put thier handprints on paper and then I also wrote out this poem to hang in a frame beside it. The plan was to type and print it out but my printer decided to stop working. Pardon my slightly messy handwriting haha! Hey it's gotten a lot better, I failed penmanship in 1st grade. I mean come on who even gives a grade for penmanship in 1st grade?

Here is the poem, if any of you would like to do this project with your children also.

Handprints

Sometimes you get discouraged,

 Because I am so small

I always leave my handprints,

On the furniture and walls,

But everyday I’m growing,

 

I’ll be grown someday

Then all my little handprints,

 

Will slowly fade away

So, here’s a final handprint,

Just so that you can say

This is how my hand looked,

When I placed it here today.

And then of course you put the date. I'm thinking about doing this every year, changing out the pictures and saving the previous ones in a memory file. (I have a memory file for each of my girls where I keep thier special artwork and such.) There will be another post on how I organize that stuff coming soon.

Our Fun Weekend-Pool party and Trip to the Zoo

I'm a little late in posting this but we had a really fun weekend! Friday we had some friends over for a pool party and BBQ. There were about 6 kids in the pool and they had a blast! We grilled steak kabobs and chicken.

Haley and her friend Stella chillin in the Princess chairs. They are only a few weeks apart and so cute together!

On Saturday the girls and I went with some friends to The Living Desert. Its a small zoo in the middle of the desert. It was a fun day but super HOT! The zoo is pretty small but it has a few neat things.

Some of the animals we saw.

 

 

 

We joined my friend Shantel over at Just Another Marine SAHM for the zoo trip. She has 3 little girls, 2 of them are Serenity and Haley's age. I think it's so cute how they are all about the same size!

 

So what did yall do this past weekend?

Trip to Sunnyland

This week we were provided the opportunity to take a really fun field trip to Sunnyland Center and Gardens. This place was amazing, if you have time, click on the link and read up on it. If you are a reader of mine and live in the area, seriously consider visiting this place, you won't regret it.

Sunnylands teamed up with MCCS to provide military families with preschoolers a day at Sunnylands tailored just for them. As hard as military life is, I'm alway so grateful to businesses, organizations and people who donate thier time and talents to help military families. If you have ever helped out a military family in any way, I just want to say a big thank you! It is appreciated so much!

We woke up early and headed to base to sign in. Sunnyland sent luxury buses to pick us up, my girls were so giddy with excitement to ride on a big bus! Haley had to use the on bus bathroom like 3 times. I think she was impressed with the novelty of a bathroom in a vehicle. When we got Sunnyland we started to explore the gardens. There was a lot of wildlife and an excessive amount of lizards.

 

Our first stop was the Labyrinth garden. There were tubs of chalk for the children to draw all over the path.

We walked around and observed the flowers and hummingbirds in another section of the gardens. I'm pretty proud of my hummingbird shots, it took like 50 tries to get a good one. Those things move soooo fast!

 

Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

 

 

As you can tell from Serenity's grumpy face, it was getting hot so we headed inside for out next activity.

 

 

The girls got an artist smock and got to paint butterfly pictures. Its a little hard to see from this pic but Serenity (left) was very precise, in the lines with her picture. Haley just filled the whole thing up with color!

 

 

And if pictures weren't enough they even got thier own ceramic pots! Again you can see how detail-orientated Serenity is with her purple around the edges. Haley has to have creative freedom and cover every inch in paint haha! I love how different and unique they are!

 

We set the art on a table to dry and grabbed some lunch. They really outdid themselves with the catering. There were like 8 different types of sandwhices and subs, coleslaw, different types of potato salad and different fruit salads. Plus chips, tea, soda and water bottles. For dessert there was cookies and brownies. It was yummy! We took our food outside on the lawn and laid down our picnic blanket.

Me and cheeto face

 

Taking a nap after lunch!

 

After lunch we were given a cup full of ladybugs to release into the garden. Ladybugs eat the harmful bugs and help the delicate desert ecosystem run smoothly.

 

 



We toured some more of the gardens and played a little put put in the Performance Circle.

 

 

More beautiful plant life!

 

They had lots of books and educational toys out for the kids while we waited for the buses to come pick us back up.

 

 

It was pretty cool to see all the celebrities and diplomats who were or are frequent visitors. There was Queen Elizabeth, Bush Sr. and Jr. Margaret Thatcher, the Kennedys, Ronald Regan...and thats just one board!

Long day but a good one!